Add some crunch to your summer picnics.
I first made these this year in spring with radishes and carrots and they were almost too pretty pink to eat. Now that summer veg starts to pile up this is a brilliant way to use up those little cucumbers and peppers you might be persuaded to buy too many of. The fridge part is the cheating bit – because you store them in the fridge you don’t need to be so uber concerned with the exact concentrations of brine and vinegar necessary to pickle the veggies and prevent fermentation or worse.
Quantities are fairly rough here…a selection of vegetables that you like works well…I’ve pickled carrots, cauliflower and radishes using this solution. What I do love is messing around with the spices in the pickling solution and not only because I love the smell of vinegar (I know its a bit weird but I really do love it!) but depending on what mood I am in I might add fennel, rosemary and thyme or go more spicy with cardamon, cumin and chili. But i just don’t do dill…sorry I just cant.
Ingredients for 4 x 200ml jars or 1 x 1 litre jar ish
Vegetables
- 4-5 small cucumbers sliced thin
- 1-2 red peppers sliced into strips
- 1-2 onions white or red – I quite like them sliced in rounds
- a few carrots
- cauliflower sprigs look nice too
- a couple of cloves of garlic
Pickling Liquid
- 500ml cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 200ml water (I like vinegar so i make a quite strong pickling liquid)
- 50g of sugar or 2 tablespoons of honey or 30g fructose
- 25g salt
- 1 tbsp pink peppercorns
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- some chilli flakes as you prefer them
How To
This is one of those recipes with embarrassingly almost no method.
- Chop up the veggies and place in your jars. I like to layer mine up and make them look pretty
- Place the spices, sugar, salt and vinegar in a pan and heat until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
- Let cool (quite important)
- Pour the pickling liquid over the veggies. screw the cap on and refrigerate.
After one day they will have taken on the pickling liquid and be just delish! Hold off a few days more and they will be even better! keep in the fridge 4-6 weeks if you can
- Vegetables
- 4-5 small cucumbers sliced thin
- 1-2 red peppers sliced into strips
- 1-2 onions white or red - I quite like them sliced in rounds
- a few carrots
- cauliflower sprigs look nice too
- a couple of cloves of garlic
- Pickling Liquid
- 500ml cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 200ml water (I like vinegar so i make a quite strong pickling liquid)
- 50g of sugar or 2 tablespoons of honey or 30g fructose
- 25g salt
- 1 tbsp pink peppercorns
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- some chilli flakes as you prefer them
- This is one of those recipes with embarrassingly almost no method.
- Chop up the veggies and place in your jars. I like to layer mine up and make them look pretty
- Place the spices, sugar, salt and vinegar in a pan and heat until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
- Let cool (quite important)
- Pour the pickling liquid over the veggies. screw the cap on and refrigerate.
- After one day they will have taken on the pickling liquid and be just delish! Hold off a few days more and they will be even better! keep in the fridge 4-6 weeks if you can